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LINCOLN 


AND 


THE     NEWSPAPERS 


By 


CHARLES   T.  WHITE 


% 


LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 


founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


ADDRESS    BY 

Charles    T.   White 

OF    THE     NEW     YORK    TRIBUNE 
AT     HARROGATE,    TENN..    NOVEMBER    11,   1923 

INAUGURAL   OF    ROBERT  ORVILLE   MATTHEWS 

AS     PRESIDENT    OF     LINCOLN  MEMORIAL     UNIVERSITY 


100   Copies 

Privately  printed  for  Charles  T.  White, 

of  which  this   is  No.V-Zv< 

Hancock   Herald  Print, 
Hancock,   N.   Y. 
1924 


ILf'j>  /i/ 


S'l-i 


V 


P 


E  gather  to  think  of  the  living  Lincoln,  for  he  lives 
today  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  as  no  other  purely 
human  character. 


The  things  that  are  seen  are  temporal.  The  things 
that  are  unseen  are  eternal.  The  spirit  of  Lincoln  is  a 
binding  factor  in  our  national  fabric;  nor  is  it  confined  to 
our  national  domain.  His  spirit  is  a  benefaction,  ordered 
of  God,  to  humanity  everywhere,  and  for  all  time. 

On  October  6,  this  year,  at  Manchester,  Vt.,  on  the 
railway  station  platform  was  an  old  man.  The  train 
carrying  Lloyd  George  no  sooner  came  to  a  stop  than  the 
distinguished  Visitor,  bareheaded  and  eager  as  a  boy, 
strode  forward  to  grasp  the  hand  of  Robert  T.  Lincoln, 
son  of  the  Emancipator.  That  was  the  most  interesting 
and  thrilling  moment  in  the  American  tour  of  the  great 
Britishicr. 

"Come,"  said  the  World  War  Premier  to  his  wife  and 
daughter,  as  he  presented  them  to  Mr.  Lincoln, — "this  is 
Abraham  Lincoln's  son.  You  two  know  how  I  worship 
'his  father."' 

Later  he  said  to  the  newspaper  correspondents: 

"I  am  thrilled  with  meeting  the  son  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln. There  is  no  man  in  all  the  history  of  the  world  that 
1  place  higher  than  Abraham  Lincoln.  Lincoln  had  to  en- 
dure the  burden  of  a  Civil  War  for  something  like  five 
years.  The  World  War  lasted  about  that  long.  But  Lin- 
coln's lot  was  immeasurably  harder  than  was  that  of  the 
statesmen  entrusted  with  the  conduct  of  the  World  War. 
That  was  a  war  with  foreign  nations.  A  Civil  War  is  much 
more  wearing.  You  are  killing  your  own  people.  As  I 
look  at  the  picture  of  Lincoln  I  can  glimpse  the  shadows 
of  sorrow  deepening  on  his  wonderful  face  as  the  great 
struggle  lengthened  into  years." 

When  the  spirit  flags  with  present-day  evidences  of 
artificialities,  faith  is  reinvigorated  with  the  sure  posses- 
sion of  the  genuine. 


Life  can  bring  no  better  gift  to  the  students  of  this 
institution  than  genuineness.  It  'is  the  counterfeit  that 
needs  the  drapery.  Decorations  fall  off,  or  are  found  out. 
The  truth  abides.     The  invisible  powers  battle  for  truth. 

"Providence  is  not  blind,  but  full  of  eyes; 
It  searches  all  the  refuges  of  lies, 
And  in   His   own   good  time   the   accursed   thing 
shall  perish." 

"Douglas  is  nothing;  I  am  nothing;  but  the  truth  is 
everything,"  said  Lincoln. 

"I  shall  take  the  ground  that  I  think  is  right — right 
for  the  North,  for  the  South,  for  the  East,  for  the  West," 
said  he  at  another  time. 

The  truth  never  fears  the  certified  pubhc  accountant, 
it  never  needs  forced  balances.  The  he  is  a  defaulter  at 
sundown  and  begins  the  morrow's  task  a  furtive  bankrupt. 

Lincoln  was  a  many-sided  man.  His  character  was 
symmetrical,  but  it  had  sides,  like  the  facets  of  the  dia- 
mond.   The  theme  today  is  "Lincoln  and  the  Newspapers." 

An  honest  newspaper,  standing  for  the  truth,  is  as 
much  a  servant  of  Almighty  God  as  a  prophet  or  a  preach- 
er. A  newspaper  generally  is  rewarded  according  to  its 
works.  People  almost  invariably,  if  given  time,  make  an 
accurate  assessment  of  values. 

Books  and  pamphlets  have  been  written  about  Lincoln 
as  Emancipator,  as  Man  of  God,  as  lawyer,  statesman,  and 
pohtican;  as  an  atheist,  spirituahst,  mystic,  and  Christian; 
as  sui'veyor,  military  strategist;  as  temperance  man  and 
prohibitionist;  as  a  master  of  men;  as  a  man  of  letters, 
and  as  a  martyr.  On  recurring  birthday  anniversaries 
men  discourse  on  his  life  and  deeds  as  an  inspiration  to 
humanity.  But  the  theme  today  is  one  suggesting  a 
study  not  hitherto  developed — or  at  least  not  previously 
presented  in  a  single  treatment.  Yet  Lincoln's  relations 
with  the  newspapers  is  one  of  the  most  fascinating  of  all 
the  phases  of  his  career. 

6 


Early  Temperance  Leaning. 

While  still  a  boy,  but  with  the  stature  and  strength 
of  a  man,  at  Gentryville,  southern  Indiana,  he  first  put 
pen  to  paper  with  hope  and  purpose  to  see  his  written 
thoughts  in  print.  He  prepared  a  composition  on  temper- 
ance— a  prophetic  act! — and  Aaron  Farmer,  a  Baptist 
preacher,  had  it  printed  in  a  Ohio  newspaper.  His  advo- 
cacy of  temperance  in  a  community  where  liquor  drinking 
was  almost  universal  indicated  the  early  bent  of  his  mind. 

During  his  boyhood  reading  matter  was  scarce.  He 
devoured  books  and  newspapers  as  he  encountered  them. 
There  was,  however,  little  time  for  more  than  cursory 
reading  untjil  he  became  postmaster  of  New  Salem,  111.,  on 
May  7,  1833,  at  the  age  of  twenty-four.  This  is  an  import- 
ant date  in  the  self-education  of  Lincoln.  The  mail 
arrived  at  that  little  hamlet  on  the  Sangamon  River  once 
a  week.  Lincoln  at  the  time  was  a  surveyor.  His  head- 
quarters were  at  Samuel  Hill's  store  in  the  village.  Fie 
said  later  that  he  "carried  the  postoffice  around  in  his 
hat."  He  is  the  only  President  of  the  United  States  who 
served  as  a  rural  free  delivery  man.  When  he  had  a  call 
to  survey  a  piece  of  land  he  put  all  the  letters  belonging 
to  the  people  of  the  neighborhood  in  his  hat  and  distrib- 
uted them  along  the  way.  The  newspapers  he  read 
before  delivery. 

Lincoln's  First  Great  Address. 

Late  in  1837  Lincoln  made  an  address  before 
the  Springfield  Young  Men's  Lyceum  on  "The  Perpet- 
uation of  our  Free  Institutions."  It  was  a  passion- 
ate plea  for  the  maintenance  of  law  and  order,,  and  was 
inspired  by  the  burning  of  a  negro  in  St.  Louis.  The 
address  was  printed  in  the  "Sangamo  Journal."  Leading 
up  to  it  there  had  been  a  politicial  discussion  in  a  Spring- 
field st^ore,  resulting  in  a  challenge  by  Stephen  A.  Douglas 
to  publicly  debate  in  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church,  with 
Douglas,  Calhoun,  Lamborn  and  Thomas  on  the  Demo- 
cratic side,  and  Lincoln,  John  A.  Logan,  Oliver  Browning 


and  Edward  Baker  on  the  Whig  side.  Dwell  for  a  moment 
on  that  quartette  of  Whigs!  Lincoln  became  President 
and  Logan,  Browning  and  Baker  became  United  States 
Senators.  Lincoln's  address,  acknowledged  to  be  the  best, 
was  printed  in  the  Sangamo  Journal,  the  only  one  thus  to 
be  honored.  The  publication  of  this  address  in  Illinois 
newspapers  gave  him  a  position  of  leadership  in  political 
thought  in  his  state  that  never  was  relinquished. 

Adventure  and  Love. 

It  was  a  newspaper  controversy  that  led  to  Lincoln 
marrying  Mary  Todd  on  November  4,  1842.  James  Shields, 
an  Irishman,  was  State  Auditor.  State  scrip  currency  was 
much  depreciated.  Shields  and  other  state  officials 
brought  about  the  isssuance  of  an  order  making  the  state 
currency  non-legal  tender  for  the  payment  of  taxes.  Thus 
Shields  was  in  the  position  of  refusing  to  accept  in 
payment  of  his  own  salary  the  depreciated  scrip  he  was 
issuing.  Lincoln,  with  the  mischievous  assistance  of  Mary 
Todd  and  Julia  M.  Jayne,  wrote  a  long  letter  to  the  San- 
gamo Journal  in  August  1842  purporting  to  be  from  a 
widow,  Rebecca  by  name,  ridiculing  Shields  and  his  depre- 
ciated currency.  Shields,  a  vain  man,  was  enraged.  His 
anger  might  have  cooled,  but  a  week  or  two  later  a  letter 
signed  by  the  same  widow  Rebecca  appeared  in  the 
Journal  saying  that  if  Mr.  Shields  was  badly  hurt  in  his 
feelings  Rebecca  would  make  amends  by  accepting  his 
hand  in  marriage.  Miss  Todd  and  Miss  Jayne  alone  were 
responsible  for  this  last  letter,  which  angered  Shields 
beyond  all  bounds.  Shields  traced  the  authorship  of  the 
first  letter  to  Lincoln,  who  magnanimously  acknowledged 
responsibility  for  both  letters.  Shields  challenged  him  to 
a  duel.  The  farce  thus  became  serious,  as  Shields  w^as 
terribly  in  earnest,  and  possessed  unquestioned  courage. 
Seconds  were  chosen  and  the  duelling  ground  agreed 
upon,  and  then  the  interposition  of  friends  quashed  the 
quarrel.  The  net  result  was  that  Lincoln,  who  had 
resolved    after   the    somewhat    ridiculous    engagement    to 

8 


Mary  Owens  never  to  marry,  was  driven  straight  into  a 
union  with  Mary  Todd,  on  account  of  whose  daring  mis- 
chievousness  he  had  been  challenged  to  mortal  combat 
with  Shields.  This  serio-comic  incident  largely  shaped 
Lincoln's  destiny.  Shields  subsequently  became  a  general 
in  the  Mexican  War,  and  successively  United  States 
Senator  from  Illinois,  Minnesota  and  Missouri,  an  office- 
holding  achievement  without  parallel  in  American  poHtics. 

A  Prophecy  of  Prohibition. 

Lincoln  on  Washington's  Birthday,  1842,  in  the  Second 
Presbyterian  Church,  Springfield,  before  the  Washingtonian 
Society  made  one  of  the  most  memorable  and  prophetic 
addresses  of  his  career.  He  hailed  the  day  when  there 
should  be  neither  a  drunkard  nor  a  slave  in  the  land.  This 
address  also  printed  in  the  Sangamon  Journal,  whose 
editor,  Simeon  Francis,  was  a  firm  friend  of  Lincoln. 
Thus  was  early  formed  his  habit  of  telling  the  people 
through  the  newspapers  what  he  believed  to  be  right  oi 
wrong. 

Lincoln  and  his  law  partner,  Wiliijam  H.  Herndon, 
wrote  political  editorials  for  the  Sangam.on  Journal,  and 
Lincoln  put  in  much  of  his  spare  time  in  the  sanctum  of 
the  editor  of  the  Journal  reading  the  exchanges.  In  his 
own  office  he  received  regularly  the  New  York  Tribune, 
the  Louisville  Journal,  Garrison's  anti-slavery  Liberator, 
the  Chicago  Press  and  Tribune,  the  Anti-Slavery  Standard 
and  the  National  Era.  On  tihe  other  pohtical  side  he  took 
the  Charleston  Mercury  and  the  Richmond  Enquirer. 

Lincoln's  relations  with  the  newspapers  and  their 
publishers  continued  without  special  significance  until  the 
middle  fifties,  when  the  so-called  Nebraska  Bill,  passed  in 
the  National  Congress  largely  through  the  influence  of 
Stephen  A.  Douglas,  brought  Lincoln  from  his  steadily 
growing  practice  of  law  into  the  leadership  of  the  move- 
ment in  Illinois  against  the  extension  of  slavery.  No 
political  issue  has  since  produced  equal  emotional,  section- 
al and  patriotic  intensity. 

9 


Dry  Wave  of  the  Fifties. 

K 

Two  of  the  most  active  years  of  Lincoln's  increasingly 
busy  life  were  1854  and  1855.  The  historians  have  given 
them  scant  attention.  A  prohibition  wave  starting  in  Maine 
in  the  early  fifties  swept  a  Republican  prohibition  gov- 
ernor, Myron  Holley  Clark,  into  office  in  New  York,  and 
continued  its  westward  sweep  to  the  Mississippi.  Illinois 
elected  a  dry  legislature  in  1854.  Lincoln  was  the  leader 
of  the  Anti-Slavery  Extension  Whigs  and  Free-Soilers, 
and  these  with  dry  Democrats,  controlled  the  leg'islature. 
The  Illinois  newspapers  were  ablaze  with  anti-slavery  and 
prohibition  discussion.  Lincoln  wrote  a  drastic  prohibi- 
tion law  which  was  passed  by  the  Illinois  leg'islature  in 
1855,  but  was  defeated  in  a  referendum  in  June  of  the 
same  year.  Party  lines  dissolved  on  its  passage.  The 
newspapers  took  sides  on  prohibition  then  as  they  do  now. 
The  wets  rioted  in  Chicago,  men  were  killed,  and  martial 
law  was  proclaimed.  Lincoln  was  a  candidate  for  United 
States  Sentaor  while  this  prohibition  battle  was  in 
progress.  He  was  defeated  in  a  three-cornered  fight  in 
the  legislature  by  Lyman  Trumbull,  Lincoln  throwing  his 
large  following  to  Trumbull,  an  anti-savery  Democrat, 
rather  than  permit  Governor  Matteson  to  be  elected. 
Thus  Lincoln  suffered  two  defeats  in  one  year.  He  wit- 
nessed the  rejection  of  his  dry  law,  and  failed  of  election 
as  senator. 

Beginning  a  Great    Struggle. 

The  following  year,  1856,  Lincoln  figuratively  "set 
the  prairies  afire"  with  a  speech  at  the  first  Republican 
State  Convention  at  Bloomington  on  May  29.  That 
forensic  effort  has  since  been  called  his  "lost  speech." 
The  excitment  caused  among  the  audience  by  the  speech 
was  so  great  that  the  reporters  forgot  to  take  notes,  and 
for  many  years  it  was  assumed  that  no  record  of  the 
speech  had  been  preserved.  Major  H.  C.  Whitney,  then  a 
young  Illinois    lawyer,   did,  however,  take    notes    of  the 

10 


speech  which  he  preserved.  When  Mr.  Whitney  printed 
this  "lost  speech"  in  1896,  together  M^ith  a  letter  from 
Joseph  Medill,  of  the  Chicago  Tribune,  present  at  the  con- 
vention, confirming  the  accuracy  of  it,  it  created  a  literary 
sensation.  Lincoln  spoke  without  notes.  The  climax  was 
reached  when  with  impassioned  fervor  he  hurled  the 
following  to  the  disunionists — 

"We  will  say  to  the  Southern  disunionists,  'We  won't 
go  out  of  the  Union,  and  you  shan't.'  " 

This  was  essentially  the  doctrine  enunciated  by  Par- 
son Brownlow  of  Knoxville,  who  went  to  jail  for  it. 

Horace  White,  for  many  years  one  of  the  editors  of 
the  New  York  Evening  Post,  who  heard  Lincoln  make  this 
address,  said  many  times  that  it  was  the  most  thrilhng 
speech  he  ever  heard. 

Lincoln-Douglas    Debate. 

The  anti-slavery  issue  steadily  gained  in  intensity. 
Douglas,  brilhant  and  powerful,  but  without  a  moral  sub- 
stratum, said  he  did  not  care  whether  slavery  was  voted 
up  or  down.  Lincoln  held  it  to  be  wrong.  South  Caro- 
lina, Alabama  and  other  states  talked  and  planned  seces- 
sion. The  tempest  lowered  in  1858  when  Illinois  became 
the  arena  for  seven  historic  joint  debates  between  Lincoln 
and  Douglas,  beginning  at  Ottawa,  August  21,  and  ending 
at  Alton  October  15.  Douglas  expressed  the  conviction 
that  he  would  be  worsted,  and  he  was. 

The  files  of  the  newspapers  reflect  the  fervid  political 
atmosphere.  From  one  end  of  the  United  States  to  the 
other  the  newspapers  featured  these  debates.  The  names 
01  Lincoln  and  Douglas  became  household  words.  There 
was  time  enough  betjween  meetings  for  the  newspapers 
to  mark  and  inwardly  digest  the  momentous  issues. 
Enormous  throngs  attended  the  debates.  Two  Chicago 
newspapers,  the  Press-Tribune  and  the  Times,  carried  the 
debates  in  full.  Shorthand  men  were  rare  in  those  days, 
but  each  side  was  equipped  with  them.     Robert  Hitt,  22 


11 


UBRAliy 


years  old,  later  a  Congressman  and  Assistant  Secretary  of 
State,  covered  the  debates  for  the  Press  Tribune.  James 
B.  Sheridan  and  Henry  Binmore  did  them  for  the  Times. 
Hitt  beat  both  his  colleagues  in  handhng  the  first  debate 
at  Ottawa,  getting  in  a  full  verbatim  report  the  next 
morning.  Sheridan  and  Binmore  assumed  that  Hitt,  like 
themselves,  would  take  the  next  day  to  transcribe  his 
notes.  Bitter  partisanship  characterized  comments  on 
the  debates.  The  Douglas  papers  said  Lincoln's  speeches 
Vv^ere  "doctored"  before  they  were  printed,  as  Lincoln, 
they  asserted,  was  unable  to  speak  good  English.  There 
was  no  basis  for  the  charge. 

Bitter  Press  Partisanship. 

A  few  examples  of  press  partisanship  may  prove 
illuminating.     The  Chicago  Times  had  this: 

"Lincoln  went  yesterday  to  Monticello  in  Douglas' 
train.  Poor,  desperate  creature,  he  wants  an  audience. 
Poor,  unhappy  mortal,  the  people  won't  turn  out  to  hear 
him,  and  he  must  do  sometihing,  even  if  that  something  is 
mean,  sneaking  and  disreputable." 

The  same  paper,  describing  a  meeting  at  Clinton  on 
July  27,  1858,  gave  the  following  pen  picture  of  Lincoln; 

"Mr.  Lincoln  then  gradually  lengthened  out  his  long, 
lank  proportions  until  he  stood  upon  his  feet,  and  with  a 
desperate  attempt  at  looking  pleasant  said  that  he  would 
not  take  advantage  of  Judge  Douglas'  crowd,  but  would 
address  'sich'  as  liked  to  hear  him  in  the  evening  at  the 
Court  House.  Having  made  this  announcement  in  a  tone 
and  with  an  air  of  a  perfect  Uriah  Heep,  pleading  his 
humility,  and  asking  for  forgiveness  of  heaven  for  his 
enemies,  he  stood  washing  his  hands  with  invisible  soap  in 
imperceptible  water,  until  his  friends,  seeing  that  his 
mind  was  wandering,  took  him  in  charge  and  bundled  him 
off  the  grounds." 

A  caricature  not  without  artistic  merit! 

12     ' 


The  publicity  given  to  the  Lincoln-Douglas  debates 
made  the  antagonists  national  figures.  The  conviction 
deepened  that  there  was  indeed  an  irrepressible  conflict. 
Illinois  Republicans  began  to  talk  of  Lincoln  for  President, 
while  their  Democratic  neighbors  boomed  Douglas  for  the 
same  high  place.  The  struggle  between  the  slaveholders 
and  the  free-soilers  for  supremacy  in  Kansas  tightened  the 
tension.  John  Brown  became  a  sort  of  fiery  cross  in 
Kansas,  and  following  his  mad  raid  on  the  government 
arsenal  at  Harper's  Ferry,  died  on  the  scaffold  at  Charles- 
town  on  December  2,  1859.  His  death  widened  the  fissure 
in  the  American  Union. 

Epoch  Marking  Address  in  Cooper  Institute. 

On  February  9,  1860,  Charles  C.  Nott  and  Cephas 
Brainerd,  of  New  York,  in  behalf  of  the  Young  Men's 
Republican  Union,  sent  Lincoln  an  invitation  to  make  an 
address  in  New  York  City.  Perhaps  this  one  address 
more  than  any  other  made  Lincoln  President;  His  theme 
was  "The  Policy  of  the  Framers  of  the  Constitution,  and 
the  Principles  of  the  Republican  Party."  He  proved  that 
the  founders  of  the  Nation  never  contemplated  human 
slavery.  William  Cullen  Bryant,  editor  of  the  New  York 
Evening  Post,  presided  at  the  Cooper  Institute  meeting. 
Horace  Greeley  of  the  Tribune  was  present.  Lincoln  had 
arrived  at  the  old  Astor  Huose  in  Broadway  on  the  Satur- 
day previous.  On  Sunday  he  attended  Henry  Ward 
Beecher's  church  in  Brooklyn.  On  Sunday  night  he  went 
to  the  New  York  Tribune  office,  just  across  City  Hall  Park 
from  the  Astor  House,  with  the  manuscript  of  his  speech. 
He  waited  in  the  composing  room,  chatting  with  the 
employes,  for  the  proof  slips,  and  after  he  had  finished 
reading  the  proofs  the  original  manuscript  was  dropped 
into  the  waste  paper  basket. 

Luckless  fate!  If  Amos  J.  Cummings,  foreman  of  the 
composing  room,  and  afterward  for  many  terms  a  Tam- 
many Congressman,  and  always  poor,  had  saved  that  man- 

.       13 


uscript  he  could  have  sold  it  within  the  last  twenty  years 
for  $25,000. 

The  Cooper  Institute  address  enlightened  the  East  on 
Lincoln's  superb  mental  attainments.  Greeley  pronounced 
it  the  best  he  ever  heard.  Greeley  at  once  became  a 
supporter  of  Lincoln,  and  his  influence  in  the  nominating- 
convention  a  few  months  later  spht  the  New  York  delega- 
tion, leading  to  the  tr'iumph  of  Lincoln  and  the  defeat  of 
William  H.  Seward,  his  nearest  competitor. 

The  great  address  was  printed  and  reprinted  through- 
out the  country.  It  became  the  new  Republican  party 
gospel.  The  more  it  was  studied  the  deeper  grew  the 
conviction  that  here  after  all  was  a  strong  leader — a 
captain  sufficient  for  the  coming  hurricane. 

Newspaper    Men    of   Lincoln's   Day. 

With  Lincoln's  relations  with  the  newspapers  as  a 
major  theme  it  is  not  permissible  ao  attempt  even  a  brief 
narrative  of  Civil  War  history.  No  sooner  was  the 
struggle  under  way  than  Lincoln's  contacts  with  the  news- 
paper men  and  publishers  became  more  intimate  and 
frequent.  Lincoln  had  to  do  with  Whitelaw  Reid,  Charles 
A.  Dana,  James  R.  Gilmore  and  Henry  E.  Wing,  of  the  New 
York  Tribune.  The  latter  by  the  way,  is  still  living.  Mr. 
Reid  later  became  Ambassador  to  France  and  Great 
Britain.  Mr.  Dana  became  Assistant  Secretary  of  War 
and  afterward  editor  of  the  New  York  Sun.  Others  were 
John  R.  McLean,  of  the  Cincinnati  Enquirer,  and  Murat 
Halstead  of  the  Cincinnatti  Gazette;  John  Locke  Scripps, 
Joseph  Medill  and  Horace  White  of  the  Chicago  Press 
Tribune;  William  Cullen  Bryant  and  David  Bartlett,  of  the 
New  York  Evening  Post;  James  Gordon  Bennett,  George 
F.  Fogg  and  Charles  G.  Halpine,  of  the  New  York  Herald; 
Henry  J.  Raymond,  of  the  New  York  Times;  Thurlow 
Weed,  of  the  Albany  Evening  Journal;  George  A]fred 
Tov/nsend  and  Charles  G.  Leland,  journalists  and  magazine 
writers;  Ben.  Perley  Poore,  of  the  Boston  Globe;  Charles 
C.  Coffin,  of  the  Boston  Journal;  L.  A.   Gobright,  of  the 

14 


Associated  Press;  Henry  Watterson  of  the  Louisville 
Journal;  Colonel  Alexander  K.  McClure,  of  the  Philadel- 
phia Times;  Murtagh  of  the  Washington  Republican.  In 
a  desultory  way  he  was  thrown  into  contact  w'ith  publicists 
and  writers  hke  James  Russell  Lowell,  Walt  Whitman, 
Frederick  Douglass,  Schuyler  Colfax,  Don  Piatt,  James  C. 
Willing  and  Francis  Lieber. 

Dana  on  Lincoln. 

Charles  A.  Dana  of  the  New  York  Sun,  left  this 
tribute  to  Lincoln: 

"He  had  the  most  comprehensive,  the  most  judicious 
mind;  he  was  the  least  faulty  in  his  conclusions  of  any 
man  I  have  ever  known.  He  never  stepped  too  soon  and 
he  never  stepped  too  late.  He  never  took  an  unimportant 
point  and  went  off  upon  that;  but  he  always  laid  hold  of 
the  real  thing,  of  the  real  question,  and  attended  to  that, 
without  attending  to  the  other  things  any  more  than  was 
indispensably  necessary.  He  had  no  freakish  notions  that 
things  were  so,  or  might  be  so,  when  they  were  not  so. 
AU  his  thinking,  and  all  his  reasoning,  all  his  mind,  in 
short,  was  based  continually  upon  actual  facts,  and  upon 
facts  of  which  he  saw  the  essence.  I  never  heard  him  say 
anything  that  was  not  so.  I  never  heard  him  foretell 
things;  he  told  what  they  were,  but  I  never  heard  him 
intimate  that  such  and  such  consequences  were  likely  to 
happen  without  the  consequences  following.  I  should  say, 
perhaps,  that  his  greatest  quality  was  wisdom.  And  that 
is  superior  to  talent,  superior  to  education." 

Greeley's  Estimate  of  Lincoln. 

Horace  Greeley's  estimate  of  Lincoln  is  no  less  illu- 
minating.    He  says: 

"Mr.  Lincoln  was  emphatically  a  man  of  the  people. 
There  never  yet  was  a  man  so  lowly  as  to  feel  humbled  in 
tiie  presence  of  Abraham  Lincoln;  there  was  no  honest 
man  who  feared  or  dreaded  to  meet  him.  There  was  no 
virtuous   society   so   rude    that,   had  he   casually   dropped 

15 


into  it,  he  would  have  checked  innocent  hilarity  or  been 
felt  as  a  damper  on  enjoyment.  Had  he  entered  as  a 
stranger  a  logger's  camp  in  a  great  woods;  a  pioneer's 
bark-covered  cabin  in  a  new  settlement,  he  would  have 
soon  been  recognized  and  valued  as  one  whose  acquaint- 
ance was  to  be  prized  and  cultivated.  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
essentially  a  growing  man.  Enjoying  no  advantages  in 
youth,  he  had  observed  and  reflected  much  since  he  had 
attained  to  manhood,  and  he  was  steadily  increasing  his 
stock  of  knowledge  to  the  day  of  his  death.  He  was  a 
wiser,  abler  man  when  he  entered  upon  his  second  term 
than  when  he  commenced  his  first  Presidental  term.  His 
mental  processes  were  slow  but  sure;  if  he  did  not  acquire 
swiftly,  he  retained  all  that  he  had  once  learned. 

"Though  I  very  heartily  supported  it  when  made,  I 
did  not  favor  his  renomination  as  President;  for  I  wanted 
the  war  driven  onward  with  vehemence,  and  this  was  not 
in  his  nature.  Always  dreading  that  the  national  credit 
would  fail,  or  the  national  resolution  would  falter,  I  feared 
that  his  easy  ways  would  allow  the  rebellion  to  obtain 
European  recognition  and  achieve  ultimate  success.  But 
that  'divinity  that  shapes  our  ends'  was  quietly  working 
out  for  us  a  larger  and  fuller  deliverance  than  I  had  dared 
to  hope  for,  leaving  to  such  short-sighted  mortals  as  I  no 
part  but  to  wonder  and  adore.  We  have  had  chieftains 
who  would  have  crushed  out  the  rebellion  in  six  months, 
but  God  gave  us  the  one  leader  whose  control  secured  not 
only  the  downfall  of  the  rebellion,  but  the  eternal  over" 
throw  of  human  slavery  under  the  flag  of  the  Great 
Repubic." 

Lincoln  on  Greeley. 

Lincoln  was  a  great  admirer  of  Mr.  Greeley.  He 
wrote  this  to  former  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Robert  J. 
Walker: 

"I  need  not  tell  you  that  I  have  the  highest  confidence 
in  Mr.  Greeley.     He  is  a  great  power.     Having  him  firmly 

16 


behind  me  will  be  as  helpful  to  me  as  an  army  of  one 
hundred  thousand  men.  That  he  has  ever  kicked  the 
traces  has  been  owing  to  his  not  being  fully  informed. 
He  and  I  should  stand  together,  and  let  no  minor  differ- 
ences come  between  us;  for  we  both  seek  one  end,  which 
is  the  saving  of  our  country." 

Lincoln  planned  to  appoint  Mr.  Greeley  Postmaster 
General  in  his  second  administration.  George  G.  Hoskins, 
a  leading  New  York  Republican  during  the  Civil  War  and 
later,  was  commissioned  by  Lincoln  to  tell  Greeley  that 
he  wanted  him  to  be  Postmaster  General.  Hoskins 
reached  Washington  from  New  York  on  his  errand  to 
consummate  this  plan  the  morning  following  the  assassina- 
tion of  the  President  on  April  14,  1865. 

Colonel  Alexander  McClure,  the  well-known  editor  of 
the  Philadelphia  Times  during  the  war  period,  was  close  to 
Lincoln — in  fact,  one  of  his  advisers.  The  criminal 
element  in  the  Molly  Maguires,  a  secret  and  lawless 
organization  in  the  Schuylkill  coal  regions  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, defied  the  1862  draft,  and  nearly  precipitated  armed 
conflict  between  citizens  and  troops.  Secretary  Stanton 
ordered  the  draft  requirements  to  be  enforced  to  the 
letter  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  and  troops  were  sent  to 
enforce  the  order.  McClure  saw  President  Lincoln  about 
it.  Lincoln,  Adjutant  General  Townsend  and  Colonel 
McClure,  acting  without  the  knowledge  of  Secretary 
Stanton,  satisfied  the  draft  requirements  without  precipi- 
tating a  clash  that  might  have  had  the  most  serious 
results.  Later  in  New  York  City  Secretary  Stanton's 
orders  with  reference  to  carrying  out  draft  requirements 
were  carried  out  with  precision  and  force,  and  1,000  people 
were  killed.  In  commenting  on  Lincoln  in  this  connection 
Colonel  McClure  says: 

McClure  on  Lincoln. 

"If  there  are  yet  any  intelligent  Americans  who 
believe  that  Lincoln  was  an  innocent,  rural,  unsophisti- 
cated character,  it  is  time  that  they  were  undeceived.     I 

17 


venture  the  assertion,  without  fear  of  successful  contra- 
diction, that  Abraham  Lincohi  was  the  most  sagacious  of 
all  the  public  men  of  his  day  in  either  party.  He  was 
tiierefore  the  master  politician  of  his  time.  He  was  not 
^  politician  as  the  term  is  now  commonly  employed  and 
understood;  he  knew  nothing  about  the  countless  methods 
which  are  employed  in  the  details  of  pohtical  effort;  but 
no  man  knew  better — indeed  I  think  no  man  knew  so  well 
as  he  did — how  to  summon  and  dispose  of  political  ability 
to  attain  great  political  results;  and  this  work  he 
performed  with  unfailing  wisdom  and  discretion  in  every 
contest  for  himself  and  for  the  country." 

Jaquess'  Visionary  Enterprise. 

Lincoln  during  the  darkest  period  of  the  war,  in  the 
summer  of  1864,  with  his  own  renomination  pending,  lent 
his  support  to  a  voluntary  peace  mission  by  Colonel  James 
F.  Jaquess  of  Illinois,  a  Methodist  minister,  and  James  R. 
Gilmore,  a  former  member  of  the  New  York  Tribune 
staff,  who  at  grave  personal  risk  went  to  Richmond  and 
asked  Jefferson  Davis  on  what  terms  the  Confederates 
Vv'ould  surrender.  It  was  a  somewhat  visionary  enterprise, 
and  one  which  Lincoln  could  not  openly  sponsor,  for  fear 
it  would  put  the  government  in  the  attitude  of  being  a 
suppliant  for  peace  with  a  nearly  vanquished  antagonist. 
Furthermore,  there  was  serious  discussion  by  some  of  the 
party  leaders  of  refusing  Lincoln  a  renomination  as  a 
necessary  step  in  bringing  the  war  to  an  end.  Anti-Lin- 
coln newspapers  and  speakers  asserted  that  Davis  was 
ready  to  make  peace  on  terms  that  the  North  could  accept. 
Lincoln  believed  to  the  contrary,  but  lacked  the  proof. 
This  the  Jaquess-Gilmore  voluntary  peace  embassy  set- 
tled. Davis  told  Jaquess  and  Gilmore  that  the  Confeder- 
acy demanded  recognition  as  a  legal  and  permanent  con- 
federation, and  that  he  would  fight  for  it  to  the  bitter 
end.  When  Jaquess  and  Gilmore  returned  with  this  news 
the  Union  supporters  knew  there  was  only  one  thing  left 
to  be   done,  namely,  fight  the  war  to  a  conclusrion.     This 

18 


clarification  was  as  important  as  a  victorious  battle.  Lin- 
coln believed  that  the  publication  of  Davis'  attitude  would 
crystallize  sentiment,  and  he  was  right.  All  thought  of 
nominating  someone  in  Lincoln's  place,  or  compromising 
with  the  disunionists,  was  abandoned.  Lincoln  was  re- 
nominated at  Baltimore  and  reelected,  receiving  56%  of 
the  popular  vote,  carrying  22  out  of  25  participating  states, 
McClellan  carrying  only  Delaware,  Kentucky  and  New 
Jersey. 

It  was  during  this  same  discouraging  period  of  the 
war  that  Lincoln  won  the  support  of  James  Gordon  Ben- 
nett, much  to  the  surprise  of  the  other  newspapers  and 
to  the  Democrats,  who  had  nominated  General  McClellan 
for  President.  Mr.  Bennett's  paper,  the  Herald,  was  very 
powerful.  Loncoln  had  a  staunch  supporter  in  the  Times 
under  the  direction  of  Henry  J.  Raymond,  and  while 
Greeley  and  the  Tribune  rendered  vast  help,  Mr.  Greeley's 
impatience  often  got  the  better  of  him,  so  that  he  often 
was  a  sore  trial  to  Lincoln.  Generally  speaking,  the 
Herald  was  hostile,  as  the  elder  Bennett  was  disinclined 
to  praise  anyone.  In  the  summer  of  1864,  with  pohtical 
factors  lightly  balanced,  Lincoln,  without  asking  the 
advice  of  Mr.  Seward,  his  Secretary  of  State,  wrote  James 
Gordon  Bennett  an  offer  to  make  him  Ambassador  to 
France.  Bennett  did  not  go  over  to  Lincoln  at  once,  but 
after  he  wrote  a  leading  editorial  in  which  he  declared 
that  Fremont  had  proven  a  failure,  and  that  Lincoln  had 
proven  a  failure,  and  that  McClellan  had  proven  a  failure, 
he  wound  up  by  supporting  Lincoln. 

Attitude  of  the  British  Press. 

The  British  press  was  almost  uniformly  hostile  to 
Lincoln.  There  were  a  few  Englishmeii,  notably.  Gold- 
win  Smith,  Richard  Cobden,  and  John  Bright,  who  consist- 
ently supported  the  North,  but  for  the  most  part  the 
English  leaders  sympathized  with  the  South.  England 
needed  cotton,  and  the  blockade  of  the  southern  ports  cut 

19 


off  that  staple,  causing  industrial  distress  in  Great 
Bi'itain. 

Gladstone  in  1862  said:  *'Mr.  Jefferson  Davis  has  made 
of  the  South  a  Nation.  Separation  is  as  certain  as  any 
event  yet  future  and  contingent.  The  London  Times  on 
July,  1864,  commenting  on  the  prosecution  of  the  war  by 
the  North,  said:  "It  is  difficult  to  suppose  that  they  will 
longer  continue  on  the  road  to  ruin." 

The  London  Morning  Herald  of  November  23,  1864, 
said:  "Abraham  Lincoln,  the  mouther  of  stump  speeches, 
the  buffoon  of  the  battlefield,  the  swindler  of  the  Amer- 
ican constituencies  and  the  Judas  of  his  country."  As  late 
as  March  4,  1865,  this  bitter  journal  said:  "Once  more 
Abraham  Lincoln,  who  dispenses  with  all  thought  of 
conscience  or  a  future,  trafficking  in  blood  upon  brotherly 
battlefields,  and  crowning  himself  King  of  the  New  World 
Golgotha." 

Lincoln  and  a  Panama  Canal. 

One  of  the  last  acts  of  Lincoln,  on  the  afternoon 
before  he  was  shot  by  the  drunkard  Booth  on  the  night  of 
April  14,  was  to  send  James  B.  Merwin  to  see  Colonel 
Alexander  K.  McClure,  of  the  Philadelphia  Times  and 
Horace  Greeley  of  the  Tribune  with  reference  to  editorial 
support  of  a  plan  to  build  the  Panama  Canal.  Benjamin 
F.  Butler  had  suggested  to  Lincoln  that  this  work  be  done 
by  the  200,000  colored  soldiers  about  to  be  mustered  out. 
Lincoln  feared  that  the  colored  soldiers.,  returning  to  the 
southland,  might  hinder  reconstruction,  and  he  was  glad 
to  consider  General  Butler's  scheme  to  employ  them  at 
the  digging  of  a  canal  across  the  Panama  Isthmus,  He 
told  Merwin  to  see  McClure  and  Greeley  and  see  if  they 
Mould  editorially  support  the  plan.  While  Merwin  was  in 
l^hiadelphia  to  see  McClure,  Lincoln  was  shot.  Merwin 
went  the  next  day  to  New  York  and  left  Lincoln's  care- 
fully written  memorandum  on  the  canal  project  with  Mr. 
Gay,  the  Tribune  managing  editor.  Following  Lincoln's 
death  nothing  more  was  heard  of  the  matter. 

20 


The  death  and  burial  of  Lincoln  v/rought  a  coinplete 
change  in  the  attitude  of  hostile  newspapers.  On  tlie 
announcement  of  his  assassination  column  rules  were 
inverted,  and  the  newspapers  of  the  country  went  into 
mourning  for  the  universal  loss.  Newspapers  which  had 
had  nothing  but  bitter  criticism  either  became  mute  or 
joined  in  the  popular  judgment  of  the  mighty  dead. 
Almost  at  once,  the  people  of  the  South  recognized  that 
they  had  lost  a  friend.  Today  it  is  the  proud  boast  of 
Kentucky  that  Lincoln  was  born  on  her  soil. 

Lincoln  is  known  to  all  enlightened  people.  His 
biography  is  available  in  many  foreign  languages.  His 
portrait  adorns  the  walls  of  the  palace,  the  cottage  of  the 
manual  laborer,  and  even  the  humble  dwelling  of  the 
Russian  peasant.  The  greatest  Russian  wrote  that  he  was 
the  incarnation  of  Jesus.  Statues  and  granite  are 
dedicated  to  his  enduring  fame.  Best  of  all,  he  lives  in 
the  heart  of  humanity. 


21 


w 


